Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi wants the industry to create more “fun and weird games”

Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi has returned to Japan after his most recent independent game, To a T, failed to meet commercial expectations but hopes that the industry will experiment more in the future.

The details:

• In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Takahashi revealed that his latest title, To a T, "didn't sell well," forcing him to relocate his family back to Japan after more than a decade living in the US. The designer acknowledged that creating niche games comes with significant financial risks compared to less experimental titles. "I don't think anyone tries to make a niche game," Takahashi said. "The title 'niche game' is just a result. I know my games are far from mainstream. I recently returned to Japan, and one of the reasons I had to do so was because To a T didn't sell well. This is a risk of being independent, and I'm willing to take it, but I don't think it's a question of niche or traditional, it's a question of whether people like it or not."
• Takahashi expressed uncertainty about his future in the video game industry, saying his immediate priority is supporting his children and finding them a school in Japan. However, he revealed that he remains interested in working on the Katamari series again if given the opportunity, expressing that he wishes he owned the IP and claiming to have "interesting ideas" that only he could develop.
• Takahashi, who designed the original Katamari Damacy and its sequel at Bandai Namco in the early 2000s, left the publisher in 2010 to found his own independent studio, Uvula, alongside his wife. The pair eventually relocated to San Francisco, where they worked with publisher Annapurna on both Wattam and To a T.